Feh to Math

T

Tinker Gnome

Explorer

• Nov 2, 2005

• #1

ANyone else like me that cant do math. No matter how hard I study and no matter how much help I get, I always fail the tests. It is making me sad, cause if
I was actually good at it I would be an Engineer or something like that. Since I am not I am going to have to settle for History.

 

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Torm

Explorer

• Nov 2, 2005

• #2

Galeros said:

Since I am not I am going to have to settle for History.

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I would personally not consider a career in History as "settling" - and I happen to be very good with Math. On the contrary, I'd love to be a history teacher, an archeologist, or an archivist. (I am a musical archivist, but that's a hobby, not anything I'm paid for. ) But maybe that's just me.

 

V

Vraille Darkfang

First Post

• Nov 3, 2005

• #3

I was pretty good at math.

At least up until Calculus 3. Then I got completly lost.

Good math skills are a benefit in ANY profession, even History.

But so is Creative Thinking, Grammer, Vocabulary, Communication Skills, Organizational Skills, etc....

Just because you aren't good in one area, doesn't mean you won't excel in another.

Histroy's not the only job for those not mathmatically enabled. Lots of other professions are out there. Find what you like & pursue it. I'm almost 30 & still haven't found it yet. Though I enjoy my current job, I'm not sure I want to spend my whole life doing it (Project Engineer/IT Support).

Find what you like & do it. That' advice I wish someone had told me when I graduated High School (I wouldn't have wasted a year pursuing Nuclear Engineering as a major).

PS. My sister sucks at math & she's now a member of a National Alzemer's Foundation. She's puts out newsletters, fundraising, etc. They just sent her to a convention in DC.

Don't despair, modern education has swung in favor of math & science (which is good), but they are ignoring the equally important social sciences.

PS. Engineer ain't all its cracked up to be.

 

Ankh-Morpork Guard

First Post

• Nov 3, 2005

• #4

My problem is that I can do the stuff, and even manage to understand most of it...I just plain don't like it. And, honestly, that just drives me crazy. Give me Art History any day over math(especially Calc).

 

Altamont Ravenard

Explorer

• Nov 3, 2005

• #5

I like math. I'm good at math. I studied math.

But I perfectly understand how it seems totally alien to some people.

You have many options in life that don't require a thorough understanding of math. I work in HR, and most of the people I work with look at me funny when I try to explain a mean.

Math isn't for everyone

AR

 

T

Tinker Gnome

Explorer

• Nov 3, 2005

• #6

Ankh-Morpork Guard said:

My problem is that I can do the stuff, and even manage to understand most of it...I just plain don't like it. And, honestly, that just drives me crazy. Give me Art History any day over math(especially Calc).

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I am the exact opposite. I like it, but I can not understand it.

I am actually taking an Art History class right now and I love it.

I am fretting right now because I have a mth test tomorrow and it will drop my grade down again. I got a 56 on the last test I took. I need to pass the class otherwise I can not graduate from High School early.

I would not even need to be taking it if I had not failed Algebra I the first time I took it(I am in Algebra II now).

I suppose I think I should have this "Can do" attitude about it, but no matter how many times I have it explained to me, it does not help. I sometimes even forget what I am doing right in the middle of a problem. It is not that I dont ask for help either my hand is almost always up in class, and my most common phrase has become " dont undertand,"

EDIT AGAIN: Not to mention my teacher wont let us use a calculator on some parts of the test. I actually would have gotten some right that I missed on the last test if I had been allowed to use one on the whole test.

 

Last edited: Nov 3, 2005

EricNoah

Adventurer

• Nov 3, 2005

• #7

I had a friend who basically wasted 3 years of college because he was convinced engineering was his thing, but he couldn't hack the math. Now, years later, he's in a totally different profession, one that is much more suited not only to his talents but to his personality. Keep looking -- something is out there for you.

 

D

drothgery

First Post

• Nov 3, 2005

• #8

When I was in college, I was pretty good; if I actually worked in a class and could understand the prof (I had a guy for Differential Equations with really poor English speaking skills), I didn't get less than a B, and for a non math/physics major, I took a lot of math (I used a couple of math courses for free electives, and counted a double-listed course as computer science). But calculus and linear algebra and the like just doesn't come up in normal line-of-business programming, so my skills have massively atrophied over the last six year or so.

 

Starman

Adventurer

• Nov 3, 2005

• #9

I think that the problem for most people, not all, but most, is that they haven't had a good math teacher. Math has always been pretty easy for me and I've helped a lot of people with their math homework. I've been able to take someone who tells me that they "can't do math" and get them to understand a lot of it. Granted, you aren't going to see many of these people doing upper level calc, however, I think that most people can be taught the basics of algebra, trig, and calc if they have the right teacher.

 

CarlZog

Explorer

• Nov 3, 2005

• #10

Starman said:

I think that the problem for most people, not all, but most, is that they haven't had a good math teacher.

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I agree. I struggled desparately with math in high school and avoided it in college, mostly because nobody could explain what it meant in the real world. It was all just theory and problems; there was absolutely no discussion of how any of this could be used.

But I later mastered trig in the process of learning, and then teaching, marine navigation -- particularly celestial nav(using sextants and the stars). Once all the numbers had some real world values attached to them, the relationships between the numbers suddenly became crystal clear to me.

Carl